True love includes romance, diamonds

Everything smells like beautiful red roses. My heart is beating faster by the second, thinking of all the beauty that comes with this special day. Love is truly wonderful.

If only I could find the right Hallmark card to express by emotions.

Yes, Boston Red Sox pitchers and catchers are reporting in Fort Myers, Fla. today and my heart could not be more full of love than it is right now.

It's finally time to let your heart thaw out from the long winter and get ready to hear the crack of wooden bats and the smacking of baseballs into mitts.

The Mets and Yankees will also be taking the field this week and baseball is finally back for us die-hards. And boy do we need it more than ever now.

Baseball will be back on the freshly cut fields instead of the dusty halls of Congress listening to clueless, pointless rhetoric between suits. I'm tired about all the talk of needles, buttocks and gauze pads.

The only thing that would melt my heart more today is if I could actually be down in Florida to soak up the sunshine. No complaints, however, I will gladly take the extra stories in the papers, the banter on the talk-radio shows and the special shows from Spring Training on NESN, YES and SNY.

Baseball is back folks, and no area cares more than our little corner in Connecticut. I know the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl was amazing, but let's face it folks, baseball rules all year in this part of the country. And it should be as good as ever this year.

It's ironic that the Yankees still have the highest payroll in baseball by about $50 million but they will rely heavily on some young pitching studs, including last year's phenom Joba Chamberlain.

The Red Sox are defending World Series champions and will have to lean on more young guys this year, especially with Curt Schilling maybe out for the season.

The Yankees brought back Andy Pettitte to anchor their rotation and who knows, maybe Connecticut's finest son, Carl Pavano, will earn his way back into the rotation.

The Red Sox will need Josh Beckett to produce another Cy Young like effort to carry them back into the playoffs. Last year's playoff run by Beckett was one of the all-time bests.

Even though the Yankees and Red Sox receive most of the headlines, it's the Mets who made the biggest splash in the offseason by reeling in Santana via a trade with the Twins.

The Mets, who suffered a historic collapse at the end of last season, are now the clear cut favorites to make to the World Series in the National League. Santana, a two-time Cy Young winner gives the Mets a potent 1-2 punch if Pedro Martinez can stay healthy.